Conditions of the Divisionalized Form

1. Market diversity One situational factor above all drives the organization to use the Divi- sionalized Form—market diversity. The organization faced with a single integrated market simply cannot split itself into autonomous divisions; the one with distinct markets, however, has an incentive to create a unit to deal with each. This enables the organization

Stages in the Transition to the Divisionalized Form

We have a good deal of research on the transition of the corporation from the functional to the Divisionalized Form, much of it from the Harvard Business School, which has shown a special interest in the structure of the large corporation. Figure 11-3 and the discussion that follows borrow from these results to describe

Some Issues Associated with the Divisionalized Form

We begin our discussion of the issues associated with this configuration by enumerating some of the advantages traditionally claimed for the Division- alized Form over the more integrated functional forms. Then, from soci- ety’s perspective, we suggest that the Divisionalized Form should logically be compared with another alternative, that of the divisions constituted as

The Adhocracy: Description of the Basic Structure

1. The design parameters In Adhocracy, we have a fifth distinct configuration: highly organic struc- ture, with little formalization of behavior; high horizontal job specializa- tion based on formal training; a tendency to group the specialists in functional units for housekeeping purposes but to deploy them in small, market-based project teams to do their

Conditions of the Adhocracy

1. Basic environment The conditions of the environment are the most important ones for this configuration; specifically, the Adhocracy is clearly positioned in an en- vironment that is both dynamic and complex. According to Hypotheses 9 and 10, a dynamic environment calls for organic structure and a complex one calls for decentralized structure. And

Some Issues Associated with Adhocracy

There has been little exploration of the issues associated with Adhocracy, the newest of the five configurations. Simple Structure is so old that its advantages and disadvantages are by now taken for granted. The issues associated with Machine Bureaucracy have been discussed at great length in the literature, especially those concerning alienation and conflict.

The Five Configurations of Organization as One System

Do any of these configurations really exist? This is a strange question to raise after so many pages of discussion, filled with illustrations. But it is worth asking, in order to draw a tighter line between the five configura- tions and the reality they purport to describe. In one sense, the configurations do not

To Six Configurations of Organization . . and Beyond

Is there a sixth configuration? Well, the rainbow still has only five colors.1 But the planets turned out to number more than five. We even seem to be on the verge of recognizing that sixth sense. So why not a sixth configura- tion? As long, of course, as it maintains the harmony of our

Decision-making and the execution of organizational decisions

It is clear that the actual physical task of carrying out an organization’s objectives falls to the persons at the lowest level of the administrative hierarchy. The automobile, as a physical object, is built not by the engineer or the executive, but by the mechanic on the assembly line. The fire is extinguished, not by

Choice and behavior of organizations

All behavior involves conscious or unconscious selection of particular actions out of all those which are physically possible to the actor and to those persons over whom he exercises influence and authority. The term “selection” is used here without any implication of a conscious or deliberate process. It refers simply to the fact that,

Value and fact in organizational decision

A great deal of behavior, and particularly the behavior of individuals within administrative organizations, is purposive—oriented toward goals or objectives. This purposiveness brings about an integration in the pattern of behavior, in the absence of which administration would be meaningless; for, if administration consists in “getting things done” by groups of people, purpose provides

Decision-making in the administrative of organizations process

Administrative activity is group activity. Simple situations are familiar where a man plans and executes his own work; but as soon as a task grows to the point where the efforts of several persons are required to accomplish it this is no longer possible, and it becomes necessary to develop processes for the application

Modes of organizational influence

Decisions reached in the higher ranks of the organization hierarchy will have no effect upon the activities of operative employees unless they are communicated downward. Consideration of the process requires an examination of the ways in which the behavior of the operative employee can be influenced. These influences fall roughly into two categories: (1)

The equilibrium of the organization

The question may next be raised why the individual accepts these organi- zational influences—why he accommodates his behavior to the demands the organization makes upon him. To understand how the behavior of tion, it is necessary to study the relation between the personal motivation of the individual and the objectives toward which the activity

Organization and personality

In recent years, organizations have not had a good press. Large organizations, especially large corporations and Big Government, have been blamed for all manner of social ills, including widespread “alienation” of both workers and executives from their work and from society, with resulting “bureaucracy” and organizational inefficiency. As we shall see later, the empirical

Meaning of the term “organization”

The tendency to downplay organizational factors in executive behavior stems from misunderstanding of the term “organization.” To many persons, an organization is embodied in charts or elaborate manuals of job descriptions and formal procedures. In such charts and manuals the organization takes on more the appearance of a series of orderly cubicles following an

Organizations and markets

One cannot discuss organizations as coordinators of human action without referring to another powerful coordinating mechanism in modem societies: markets. In fact, the currently popular denigration of organizations is the obverse face to the acclamation of markets as the ideal mechanism for economic and social integration. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was widely

Organizational decision-making and the computer

The first edition of this book was published shortly after the first modern electronic computer came into the world and some years before it found even the most prosaic applications in management. In spite of the extensive use of computers in organizations today, we still live pretty much in the horseless carriage stage of

Vertical decision-making: the anatomy of the organizational decision process

Chapter I refers to “vertical” specialization: the division of decision-making duties between operative and supervisory personnel. The chapter also notes that the subdivision of decision-making into components goes much farther than this. Any important decision is based on numerous facts (or suppositions of fact) as well as numerous values, side conditions, and constraints. We

The sociology and psychology of organizations

The question is sometimes asked whether an analysis of organizations in terms of decision-making processes is “sociological” or “psychological.” The question is a bit odd; it is like asking whether molecular biology is biology or chemistry. The correct answer in either case is “both.” This book analyzes organizations in terms of the decision-making behavior